For years, The Beachcomber ran a log of police reports — a word or two, sometimes a bit cryptic, that described some of the incidents that deputies in the King County Sheriff’s Department responded to over the course of the previous week.

We stopped running the police blotter, as such columns are often called, because the sheriff’s department stopped sending us the reports. And despite several requests by Beachcomber staff, we were told it was impossible to revive what sheriff officials said was a cumbersome system (culling the Vashon reports and faxing them to our office each week).

Thanks to the intervention of Det. Chris Masters, who recently told the Vashon Chamber of Commerce she thought The Beachcomber could receive the reports again, the system’s been revived. So starting today, we’re again running the blotter — back, we might add, by popular demand.

Some readers enjoy this small feature, a window into Vashon life. We received one anonymous note, replete with a New York Times article about one small town’s police blotter, with the words, “Please, please bring back the police log.”

It’s not our intention, however, to offer up these reports in a voyeuristic fashion. And indeed, we’ll handle some reports — those that describe family discord, for instance — with discretion. But crime is a problem on the Island, as some merchants know all too well. We hope that the return of the blotter will enable us to understand more fully what’s happening on our Island. And we hope that at times, we’ll find it entertaining.